Saturday, March 27, 2010

Noon Day Project - My measurement - part 2

Here's how I measured the sun angle for the Noon Day project.

I set up a meter stick perpendicular to the ground with the help of a metal bookend.

I checked the Internet for the approximate time of local noon (when the sun is highest in the sky). Sunrise was at 7:00am and sunset at 7:06pm. I found the midpoint between those times which was 1:03pm.

I set up my station at about 12:45 and then watched and recorded the lengths of the shadow every 5 minutes using a piece of chalk as the time approached local noon. (The length was getting shorter and the shadow was moving west to east.)

After I put down my mark I also took a photo of the shadow and stick from as close to ground as I could.

I continued till 1:15 when I noticed that the shadow was now getting slighter longer and more easterly in direction.

I used the photo where the shadow appeared to be at its shortest which was 1:03 EDT and copied an pasted it in Geometer's Sketchpad.

The Sketchpad tools allowed me to make the sketch with the details that you see in the picture including the sun angle which is formed by the sun's ray and the meter stick. (The image size of the meter stick was 6.7 cm.)

Next I'm going to post this summary on the CIESE Noon project page. (My School Name is: CLIME)

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What is the Dynamic Math Classroom?

It is a place where the discourse between teacher and students produces engagement and learning. Success depends on the teacher's mentorship of students, the school's student driven action plan and how it motivates students to learn mathematics more deeply. (Original article version 1.0) Revised 2.0 article coming soon.